Medical College of Wisconsin Demands Reliability

It’s all about research and discovery at the Medical College of Wisconsin’s sprawling facility in Milwaukee – especially inside the campus’ new Translational and Biomedical Research Center (TBRC). Research conducted at this facility plays a crucial role in the study of everything from high blood pressure to organ transplants. So when chronic equipment failures threatened to interrupt research activity at the TBRC, Mark Seymer, Maintenance Mechanic at the College, had to do a little research of his own.

“We were experiencing a lot of failure with damper actuators in our research areas,” explained Seymer, who has been with the Medical Center for 25 years and supports over 2 million square feet of building space. Throughout the 248-acre campus the mechanical controls are almost entirely pneumatic except for the sleek, new Translational and Biomedical Research Center (TBRC) which was designed and built with electronic control valves and actuators. Unfortunately, this was the area that was giving Seymer and his staff the most problems. Damper actuators on the individual air handlers that served the closely controlled research laboratories were failing regularly. Each failure event required immediate attention, as the integrity of these environments must be held within the strictest of temperature and humidity tolerances to assure the wellbeing of the college’s research facilities.

On the intake side of the air handling units (AHUs) that served these spaces, the dampers and actuators were failing and the linkages were breaking. Part of the problem was that the actuators were rather large and bulky. The size and weight of the actuators not only contributed to premature failure, but also made replacement an awkward and time consuming task.

“It was a real hassle,” said Seymer. “We really don’t have time to be dealing with these types of failures.”

Seymer turned to Mike Hibbard of Minvalco, a heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration controls wholesale distributor, for help. Hibbard, an outside sales representative for Minvalco’s West Allis branch near Milwaukee, had worked with Seymer and the Medical College for many years and was aware of the inordinate number of replacement actuators that Seymer had purchased.

“The Medical College has been a customer for many years. In fairly short order, an Actuator 101 Course was arranged on behalf of the mechanical staff at the Medical College. This course provides hands-on training on the operation and maintenance of control valves and actuators.Belimo Pressure Independent Characterized Control Valve Mark Seymer and several of his staff were in attendance. By the end of the class, Mark Seymer was ready to have the campus examined not only the dampers on the AHUs in the research laboratories, but other actuators and control valves located throughout the campus. Seymer was aware that the Medical College was on a steady path toward replacing all of the existing pneumatic valves with electronic valves would be less problematic solution than the existing electronic actuators in the TBRC building.

 

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